Brownish

How to spell brownish

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce brownish

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does brownish mean?

1. adjectiveSomewhat brown in colour; tending toward brown.

Brownish in a sentence

• The old varnish had turned a dull brownish shade.

• The soup developed a brownish tint as it simmered.

Where does brownish come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English colour word with deep Germanic roots. The base 'brown' descends from Old English 'brun', which referred to a dark, dusky colour and could also carry a sense of brightness or sheen, a shade meaning preserved in older words like 'burnish'. It is related to similar forms across the Germanic languages, including Old High German 'brun' and Old Norse 'brunn'. The suffix '-ish', also from Old English, is the everyday way English softens an adjective to mean 'somewhat' or 'approximately', as in 'reddish' or 'sweetish'. Joining the two gives 'brownish', meaning 'tending toward brown', a formation that has been used freely since the Middle English period. The spelling is mercifully regular: keep the silent-looking but voiced 'w' of 'brown' and simply add '-ish' without doubling anything.

How the word is built

• brown (the colour)
• -ish (suffix meaning 'somewhat' or 'resembling')